Johannesburg - Rescue workers searching for victims of this week's plane crash off the Comoros islands on Friday found what appeared to be a door of the plane as well as a school of sharks, possibly indicating the presence of bodies, authorities said. "They (Comoran, French and US rescue workers) found what looks to be a door from the plane," a spokesman at the crisis centre in the Comoran capital Moroni confirmed.
"They also found a school of sharks around some debris. They suppose there may be bodies there," spokesman Ahmed Sast told the German Press Agency dpa.
The door was found and the sharks were spotted in the same stretch of water where the lone survivor of the Yemenia airways crash, a 12-year-old French girl of Comoran origin, was pulled from the water on Tuesday.
So far, no bodies of the remaining 152 people on board have been recovered.
President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi has announced 30 days of mourning for the victims.
The Airbus A310 plunged into the Indian Ocean off Grande Comore island after missing its first attempt at landing in windy weather in the capital Moroni.
Most of the 142 passengers were Comorans living in France, where the flight originated.
Questions over the plane's safety were raised after it emerged France had barred the aircraft from its airspace over defects it detected in 2007. A newer Airbus was used for the France-Yemen leg of the flight.
Yemen-based Yemenia insists the plane was safe, having passed an inspection with Airbus in May.
Despite the airline never having suffered a crash before Tuesday, its reputation has taken a battering.
French Junior Minister for Transport Dominique Bussereau warned Yemenia could be barred from European skies if it did not improve the condition of its aircraft.
The carrier "must make a big effort" to avoid being blacklisted by Brussels, Bussereau told France's RTL radio, adding that the company was "under close observation."
French media also reported Yemenia had suspended flights in and out of the city of Marseille after several hundred protesters blocked the registration of passengers en route to the Yemeni capital Sana'a.
The protesters were relatives of some of the people killed in Tuesday's crash.
The airline said the suspension of flights from Marseille would last for an "undetermined period."
